Apple has traditionally shied away from legal action against other companies, an unspoken policy that has become increasingly hard to do as Android-based competitors continue to ape the iOS look and feel. As it turns out, former CEO Steve Jobs personally stepped into the fray in an effort to resolve patent issues with Samsung.

Although multi-touch devices existed prior to the iPhone, few of them have made the impact that Apple’s handset has. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough to satisfy the United States Patent and Trademark Office, who has denied Cupertino’s application for a trademark on the term.

In the technological soap opera that has become Apple and Samsung, the latest had been that Apple was granted an injunction that blocked the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 across practically all of Europe. The injunction was based on Apple having made the claim that Samsung was copying their designs more or less. However, tech site Webwereld made a curious observation in that Cupertino may have exaggerated their claims just a tad.

The guys at Cupertino are always coming up with something new, from iPods that function as phones to full-fledged tablet computers. It's easy to forget that once upon a time, patents for devices like the iPhone and iPad left us scratching our heads (check out this blog post from 2006, if you need proof). To this day, Apple keeps us on our toes, and we can't help but wonder what amazing gadget will appear from their latest crazy patent applications. So, we scoured Patently Apple for 10 of the lastest, most ridiculous patents we could find -- only because we know, one day, Apple will surprise us with yet another device that will blow us away.

Apple COO Tim Cook once said, "We have a very simple view. We love competition, but we want people to invent their own stuff. And we’re going to defend our portfolio when we need to."

No kidding. Apple is currently embroiled in multiple lawsuits with companies like Motorola, HTC, Samsung. And by aggressively adding to that portfolio, the courtroom drama is heating up and isn't going to end anytime soon. Here are some legally juicy events from the last few days:

If there's one issue that's seemed to dominate the tech world headlines this year, it's been lawsuits. Continuing the trend, in a potentially large decision today, the U.S. International Trade Commission gave an initial determination in Apple's patent infringement suit against HTC, and it isn't looking good for the latter.

While Apple wages war over patents on a number of different fronts against Google’s Android, a new report claims that the company’s chief patent attorney is planning to leave the company soon, in what can only be considered bad timing.

You may recall that Apple’s copycat suit against Samsung took an interesting turn recently when the accused requested to see Cupertino’s forthcoming products, including the unannounced iPhone 5 and iPad 3. That won’t be happening, since the judge claims that Samsung isn’t entitled to see them.

To refresh your memory, late last month Samsung had attempted to speed up its patent rumble with Apple by trying to request to see Apple's next-generation iPhone and iPad models, which they felt would help them defend itself from Apple's charges of copying, infringement, etc. Apple fired back to today, having filed a response that claimed Samsung's move had been an "improper attempt to harass."

Well, would you look at that: Those big kids in the mobile phone playground can play nice together after all, especially when cash money is in play. After nearly two years, the patent disputes between Apple and Nokia have come to a close, with Cupertino throwing a pile of money at the problem to make it go away.